D&D 5E Why do Monks only have d8 HP instead of d10 HP?

[Lyxen]

Second, they were too busy arguing over whether to make the Bard a full-caster, a double-caster, or just another subspecies of Elf to pay attention to design of the good classes.

And then they obviously forgot the monk, as it was not even in that lot...

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I'm personally not a fan of the idea of the monk getting d10 hit die. They're not meant to be frontline tanks. They're not meant to get hit often at all. Rogues don't get d10s either.

 

[Aldarc]

AUGH. The 5e Monk is a stupid pile of legacy features that barely synergize together.

I don't disagree with any of that.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

It's really annoying and makes the skill floor of the class too high.

Is the skill floor too high .... or is your skill too low?

 

[Nefermandias]

I'm personally not a fan of the idea of the monk getting d10 hit die. They're not meant to be frontline tanks. They're not meant to get hit often at all. Rogues don't get d10s either.

It would be okay for them to have smaller HP pool if they could dish a lot of damage at-will.

It's really frustrating when a new player choses to play as a monk or rogue thinking they're going to be amazingly effective in combat just to be severely outperformed by the fighter and barbarian both in terms of damage and durability.

 

[aco175]

The real problem is that fighters suck and need 1d12 and then barbarians will need 1d20 to not suck as well. but then rogues will need 2d6 since they fight a lot and clerics may need 1d12 since god is on their side, but also mages will need 1d8...

 

[Greg K]

I am often curious as to why the Monk, which is essentially a Martial Artist only a d8 for Hit Points?

Classes like the Fighter; Paladin; Ranger get a d10 because it is supposed to symbolize their rugged life style and hard training.

But, have you ever seen a Shaolin Monk or any other martial artist where training is their life style, which the D&D Monk is obviously based off of those life style choices and troupes.

When one lives that life style they train for a large portion of the day, putting their body to extreme limits. Not only that, but you spar constantly. Heck, even in the USA when you take a martial art, such as Taekwondo for example (which I did, I also did Boxing; Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; Hapkido), you spar 3 times a week minimum, except BJJ and Hapkido where you need an opponent to learn moves with every class

Well, anyways, enough of my rambling, thoughts?

MMA fighters are not monks. In my opinion, the Monk needs to be split up into at least two classes- the Martial artist and the Monk (martial artist/ caster hybrid)*. The game also needs a better treatment for tailoring both martial arts styles and special abilities associated with the styles.
*maybe rename monk to Ascetic or something else

 

[Kobold Avenger]

MMA fighters are not monks. In my opinion, the Monk needs to be split up into at least two classes- the Martial artist and the Monk (martial artist/ caster hybrid)*. The game also needs a better treatment for tailoring both martial arts styles and special abilities associated with the styles.
*maybe rename monk to Ascetic or something else

I'm against that since what most Fighters do is Martial Arts too. Though they could have used Mystic for Monk, but it's been taken by more spellcasting related classes (Psion in 5e Alpha test, and a divine caster in 3e).

 

[J.Quondam]

MMA fighters are not monks. In my opinion, the Monk needs to be split up into at least two classes- the Martial artist and the Monk (martial artist/ caster hybrid)*. The game also needs a treatment of tailoring both martial arts styles and special abilities associated with the styles.
*maybe rename monk to Ascetic or something else

Yeah, I mostly agree. The D&D monk has never been able to decide exactly what trope it's trying to emulate: the hard-bashing, damage soaking kungfu hero? The lighter-than-air, shadow-stepping assassin? The mystical master of mind-over-matter? Or something else?

I wish they'd just drop the word monk*, and introduce a class does it's own semi-mystical, "inner power" thing. And then let the "martial artist" be a fighter subclass or something.


* Similar to "ranger", I think "monk" is a bad name for a class because different people envision different things when they hear the word. As a result, players (and designers) have differing expectations of what the class can/should do. End result is, well, the D&D monk class.

 

[bedir than]

It's really frustrating when a new player choses to play as a monk or rogue thinking they're going to be amazingly effective in combat just to be severely outperformed by the fighter and barbarian both in terms of damage and durability.

Why would anyone associate the Monk or Rogue with a frontline toe-to-toe Fighter?
Who creates this expectation as it doesn't exist in the inspirational literature (books, movies, etc) nor in the rules